According to President Obama, Americans often have to navigate a labyrinth of different websites and locations to find information about relevant government programs. The president also notes that many of those programs don't even have a web presence. To remedy the situation, President Obama has ordered federal agencies to make key services available on websites via mobile phones within the next year.

The push is an effort to support the trend across the country of surfing the web on a mobile device. President Obama issued a directive to develop the mobile web content Wednesday and also ordered the federal agencies to create and make available websites that report on their mobile progress. The websites reporting on mobile progress are due within 90 days.

President Obama wrote in the memo [PDF], "It is time for the federal government to do more. For far too long, the American people have been forced to navigate a labyrinth of information across different government programs in order to find the services they need."

"Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device," Obama said in a statement. "By making important services accessible from your phone and sharing government data with entrepreneurs, we are giving hard-working families and businesses tools that will help them succeed."

Computerworld reports that by 2015, more U.S. residents are expected to access the Internet through mobile phones than via a desktop computer. That means that within the next three years a huge number of Americans will be looking for information on government services and programs using websites via mobile devices.

President Obama placed U.S. chief information officer Steven VanRoekel in charge of the effort. "Nearly everyone is carrying smart devices in their pockets that have incredible computing power," VanRoekel said in a press briefing. "It's creating a dynamic, both inside the walls of government and outside, where citizens are really demanding more. They're demanding the ability to interface with government the same way they interface with their favorite social-media websites."

Kevin Kelly, COO of LGS Innovations, a networking vendor focused on the U.S. government market, added, "One of the primary challenges, as I see it, will be overcoming the 'trust factor.' Utilizing a shared-services approach will definitely yield improvements in cost efficiency. However, it requires one agency to trust another with the handling and delivery of its critical information."

in the near future they will want to increase the Federal Universal Service Fund fee (i.e. tax) that we all pay on our mobile bills to further fund the FCC's "Lifeline" program so we can also subsidize data plans because mobile browsing is a "human right".

What is "Lifeline"? A program where I get to boost my moral standing and "spread the wealth" by paying for other people's cell phones on top of paying for my own, and that manages to waste $33 million dollars by giving away cell phones to people who don't qualify or giving qualifying applicants more than one phone.